1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to headwear and, more particularly, to a headwear piece having openings strategically placed thereon to releasably hold objects as may be separated and used by a wearer.
2. Background Art
Many activities are engaged in which require the availability of small objects/accessories. As just one example, golfers utilize tees and scoring pencils repeatedly throughout a golf round. Several options are available to golfers to keep these items readily accessible.
One common practice is to place the tees and/or pencils in a user's pants or shirt pockets. However, pencil and tees have sharpened points which may cause discomfort, or in a worst case, injury, to the golfer.
To obviate this problem, many golf equipment suppliers have devised different systems to keep on hand, and readily accessible, a supply of golf tees and pencils. Golf bags are commonly equipped with external receptacles into which individual golf tees and pencils can be placed. Similarly, both manually operated and powered golf carts commonly have some structure to store tees and pencils near a score card for ready accessibility.
While the various systems, described above, adequately perform the function for which they are designed, they are inherently less effective than a system that would allow a golfer to keep the tees and pencil on his/her person. It is not uncommon for a golfer to walk ten to twenty yards from a cart to a golf tee, only to find that he/she has no tee available. To avoid this problem, some golfers improvise by placing the tees in either a tucked position between the upper ear and head, or wedged between part of a headwear piece and the head. The tees and pencils are prone to escaping when stored in this manner. At the same time, there is some discomfort associated with placement of the tees and pencils against the wearer's head.
Headwear pieces are often provided with receptacles to hold objects/accessories. It is known to modify conventional cloth caps/hats by sewing a strip of flexible material on the external surface thereof. As an example, a rectangular strip of cloth may have its ends secured to the headwear piece so that it is loosely bunched between the ends to define a receptacle into which an object/accessory can be pressed and frictionally maintained.
Formation of receptacles on the external surfaces of headwear pieces, while addressing a need, has a number of drawbacks. First of all, the cloth strip, or other addition to the external surface of the headwear piece, may detract significantly from the appearance thereof. Further, formation of the receptacle(s) may require the handling and separate installation of one or more relatively small elements, such as the strips. This may introduce another manufacturing step, representing added costs, inconvenience, and additional assembly time. Further, the combined thickness of the materials on the headwear piece and the receptacle defining structure may increase the overall thickness required to be sewn to the point that stitching operations are complicated.
Ideally, storage of small accessories on headwear is possible without increasing manufacturing complexity or cost to any significant degree and without appreciably altering the appearance of the headwear piece.